The government is currently drafting a fiscal strategy aimed at achieving further savings in the budget, which should not jeopardise the businesses and citizens in Montenegro, said the finance minister Darko Radunovic.
At today’s business lunch organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Montenegro (AmCham), he said that 2017 budget was adopted in December, as well as rehabilitation measures in the nominal amount of €126.9m.
These measures, as he added, were necessary because the government exceeded the limits in terms of public debt and budget deficit.
“Then we were aware that we would have to proceed with further savings. We intend to incorporate these further savings in the fiscal strategy. We are working together on the strategy and we are completely transparent,” said Radunovic.
He said that they were currently monitoring the filling of the budget and the implementation of remedial measures in order to conceive fiscal strategy with appropriate measures accordingly.
Radunovic added that the government in cooperation with the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) would be able to provide access to foreign financial markets.
“This cooperation, which does not include only granting loans, but also technical assistance of both institutions, will create preconditions to make a set of measures that will be acceptable for the Montenegrin economy,” he said.
He said that a lot of work had to be done on changes in the law and adopting new ones.
“One of them is the law on public-private partnership, which should be adopted along with the law on concessions. This is a very complex issue,” said Radunovic.
Commenting on the fact that, when it comes to value-added tax (VAT), lower rates have been stipulated for the hotel industry, Radunovic said that the government thought about continuing such activities precisely in order to help the undeveloped north.
“I believe that inefficient and complicated administration and slowness in decision making is much greater barrier than the rate level,” said Radunovic.
President of AmCham, Katarina Bulatovic said that innovations in the work of this association was the Partnership for a Better Business Environment that has been implemented with member companies and ministries since April this year.
“We expect it to contribute to the efficient removal of business barriers, quality legal solutions, as well as its better implementation,” said Bulatovic.
Bulatovic added that AmCham’s 2016 report on the business environment confirmed the findings from the 2014 position report regarding the lack predictable conditions for business and non-transparent application of the law.
“In this regard, the focus of our activities are issues related to the selective application of tax legislation and inconsistency of interpretation of regulations,” said Bulatovic.
